As complicated as our lives have become, we still turn to flowers to express ourselves. Flowers mark milestone events, tell us of the seasons and make our homes more beautiful, inside and out. Flowers come in a variety of shapes, sizes and colors. So do the vases which hold them. Vases can be tall, short, narrow, wide, glass, terra cotta, glazed or painted. Flowers arranged in vases evoke infinitely many moods and attitudes. To the Japanese, arranging flowers is a highly disciplined art, requiring years of formal schooling.
This may be out of reach for most people who appreciate flowers but do not necessarily want to invest the time to study this art. They either pay a professional florist or improvise with what they have on hand. Florists stock a variety of vases, flowers and flower-stabilizing accessories. They have an eye for knowing which color goes where. They have the tools to keep the arrangement looking professional. Arranging flowers yourself is less expensive, but does not always look professional. The vase might be too wide for the number of flowers, and the flowers fall to the perimeter of the vase. Certain flowers shift position, changing the overall shape of the arrangement. In this art, what is needed is a way for a person without special training to create a professional and stable flower arrangement, regardless of the size of the vase.
I have created a two-part brace that selectively and invisibly attaches to the sidewalls of a vase opening of any circumference. The first part comprises a lower ring of transparent material. The ring can be a polygon with any number of sides. It can also be a circle. In a preferred embodiment, the lower ring has eight sides. In this preferred embodiment, every other side of the polygonal ring has a spool installed thereon. Each of these four spools is wound with, and dispenses, clear adhesive tape. The tape is coated with adhesive on an underside, which faces down toward a bottom of the vase, and a non-adhesive top side. A length of tape is pulled radially away from the lower ring and affixed to the sidewall of the vase.
The lower ring is suspended over the opening of a vase. The vase is selected to be a larger diameter than the lower ring. In the preferred embodiment, each of the four lengths of tape is pulled to dispense a length of tape long enough to reach just over an edge of the opening of the vase. If the opening of the vase represents a clock, there would be tape radiating from 3 o'clock, 6 o'clock, 9 o'clock and 12 o'clock. In this way, the tape holds the lower ring over the center of the vase. When the tape is deployed in this way, the lower ring creates grid lines which subdivide the opening of the vase into five compartments: a center compartment, and four peripheral compartments within the opening of the vase. The grid is preferably centered within and coplanar with, the opening of the vase.
The second part comprises an upper ring. This upper ring has a diameter larger than the lower ring but smaller than the opening of the vase. The upper ring has a lower surface, which has adhesive dots disposed thereon, and an upper surface, which is free of adhesive. The adhesive dots secure the upper ring to the non-adhesive side of the tape crossing the opening of the vase. The number of adhesive dots corresponds to the number and radial position of the deployed tape. For example, if there is tape radiating from a 3 o'clock, 6 o'clock, 9 o'clock and 12 o'clock positions, there will be 4 adhesive dots affixed to the underside of the upper ring at those same positions. Placing the upper ring on the lower ring in this way creates additional grid lines, thereby subdividing the opening of the vase into a total of nine compartments. Changing the number of spools will change the number of total compartments created by the vase brace. Preferably, the upper ring is a floret shape, but it may be designed in alternative shapes such as a star, a circle, oval or any other shape that has a general diameter between the lower ring and the perimeter of the vase.
Preferably, the lower ring, the spools and the upper ring are made of a transparent thermoplastic, but other transparent materials can be used. Preferably, the tape is transparent as well, to make the vase brace nearly invisible.